Don't know your X-Force from your X-Men? Wondering why everyone got so mad about the Merc without a Mouth? Fear not — here's everything you need to know about Deadpool's story on the silver screen.
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00:00Don't know your X-Force from your X-Men?
00:02Wondering why everyone got so mad about the Merc Without a Mouth?
00:06Fear not.
00:07Here's everything you need to know about Deadpool's story on the silver screen.
00:11Following fan disappointment with X-Men The Last Stand, Fox hoped to win audiences back
00:15with X-Men Origins Wolverine, which was intended to be the first of at least two prequels.
00:20Wolverine wouldn't just appeal to fans by focusing on the most popular character, though.
00:24It would also introduce other favorites from the comics, such as Gambit and Deadpool.
00:28Or at least, that was the plan.
00:30Gambit came out relatively unscathed, even though the role ended up becoming something
00:33of a dead end for actor Taylor Kitsch.
00:36And then there was Wade Wilson.
00:37In fairness, this version of the character briefly had the character's wisecracks down.
00:41You whip out a couple of swords at your ex-girlfriend's wedding, they will never, ever forget it.
00:47First appearing onscreen as part of Team X, Wade is seemingly killed offscreen before
00:51showing up again for the climax, now called Deadpool, because he has been genetically
00:55modified to pool the abilities of multiple mutants.
00:58But in a truly shocking insult to the Marvel Comics character, his mouth is fused shut.
01:02So instead of the Merc With a Mouth, he's pointedly called the Merc Without a Mouth.
01:07Wolverine defeats this Deadpool in a battle that causes the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear
01:12meltdown.
01:13But then, in a post-credits scene that appeared at the end of some prints of the film,
01:20After Matthew Vaughn recaptured the fandom's goodwill with X-Men First Class, original
01:25trilogy director Bryan Singer returned to combine both timelines with X-Men Days of
01:29Future Past.
01:30This sequel sees Wolverine travel back in time from a Terminator-esque future filled
01:34with deadly mutant-hunting Sentinels.
01:37Arriving in the 1970s, he hopes to stop the destructive Sentinels from ever being invented.
01:42Wolverine succeeds, of course, and the filmmakers behind Days of Future Past decide to make
01:46use of the butterfly effect to clean up the franchise.
01:49Most notably, when Wolverine returns to his time, Jean Grey and Cyclops are still alive,
01:54meaning the events of X-Men The Last Stand didn't happen in the newly reset continuity.
01:59The time Wolverine spends in the past ends in 1973, effectively canceling out most of
02:04X-Men Origins' Wolverine as well, meaning that the version of Deadpool that fans so
02:08hated now never existed.
02:10It may be worth noting that these time travel rules do not apply to the Marvel Cinematic
02:14Universe, in which altering the past creates a new, variant timeline rather than changing
02:19the old one.
02:20For now, though, that's not so important.
02:21All you need to know is that the stage had finally been set for Deadpool to begin anew.
02:26The 2016 movie Deadpool started the character from scratch, albeit in a timeline filled
02:30with mutants and X-Men.
02:32As far as he's aware, though, Wade Wilson isn't a mutant at first.
02:35He's just a smart-mouthed hitman-for-hire who falls for a woman named Vanessa.
02:39But before they can seriously plan their life together, Wade is diagnosed with terminal
02:43cancer.
02:44Exhausting his legitimate medical options, he signs up for a dubious program to activate
02:48any possible latent mutant genes in his system.
02:50Unfortunately for him, the only way to do that is to torture him to the brink of death,
02:54over and over again.
02:55One thing that never survives this place is a sense of humor.
02:59We'll see about that.
03:00Eventually, a mutant healing factor kicks in, though it leaves his body looking like
03:04that of a severe burn victim.
03:06Hoping to extract a cure for his new appearance from his torturer, the mutant Ajax, Wade loses
03:11the fight and is left for dead.
03:12Now that his full powers have kicked in, though, he's virtually impossible to kill.
03:16Taking the name Deadpool, this time from a betting fool, to see which local hitman will
03:20die first.
03:21He develops the red costume after realizing it won't show bloodstains as badly as his
03:24other options.
03:25Now a vigilante, Deadpool hunts Ajax's men to get even with his tormentor, and possibly
03:30find the cure for his disfiguration.
03:33For a guy who seems like he'd be kind of a loner, Deadpool ends up on a whole lot of
03:37teams, whether impromptu or otherwise.
03:39First there was Team X, and then there's the unnamed team that comes together to help save
03:43Vanessa from the clutches of Ajax.
03:45Stalwart X-Man Colossus and his trainee, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, leap into action
03:50alongside Wade, who also enlists the aid of the equally wisecracking Weasel, cab driver
03:55Dopinder, and his elderly friend Blind Al.
03:57These unlikely heroes provide effective backup for Wade, and they manage to save Vanessa.
04:02Unfortunately, the mission to extract a disfigurement cure from Ajax is a bust, since none actually
04:07exists.
04:08Luckily, since Vanessa still truly loves him, his scars aren't as big a deal as he thought.
04:11And at least he still has a mouth!
04:14Here's a question.
04:15In what timeline is all this actually happening?
04:17Colossus survived the changes Wolverine made to the original movies, as he's seen teaching
04:21a class at the end of Days of Future Past, albeit wearing his human skin.
04:24The version we see in Deadpool stays metalized the entire time, so it could conceivably be
04:29the same version, even if the actors aren't the same.
04:32Deadpool 2 also features a brief cameo by the first-class cast, implying the movie exists
04:36in that canon, even though they should be aged up to the Patrick Stewart timeline.
04:40As we know from the MCU's multiverse saga, however, variants from other universes can
04:45look exactly like the ones we know, so that doesn't really prove anything.
04:48Wade's ability to break the fourth wall complicates matters even further.
04:51You're still here.
04:53It's over.
04:56Go home.
04:59The fact that he knows both James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart have played Professor X doesn't
05:03mean he's not in the same universe as either.
05:05However, the fact that he can actually obtain a cardboard cutout mask of Hugh Jackman, as
05:09well as a music box depicting Wolverine's death in Logan, suggests he is indeed living
05:14in another timeline, one in which Hugh Jackman is an actor.
05:17Then again, X-Men comics exist in the Logan universe, but Wade knows about the existence
05:21of Logan as a movie.
05:23So what's the deal here?
05:24Appropriately, Deadpool 2 director David Leitch answers the issue with a hand wave.
05:28He told Digital Spy,
05:29"...I think Deadpool, because it's its own entity, we're flexible with the timeline,
05:33per se.
05:34But we've never had a lot of conversations about that."
05:37Deadpool 2 begins with Deadpool getting sloppy and subsequently paying the consequences.
05:41Hoping to marry Vanessa and start a family, he finds his plans thwarted when a henchman
05:45he failed to kill earlier tries to shoot him, and hits Vanessa instead.
05:49She dies, which the opening credits of the movie pretend is a huge shock.
05:53How could such a popular character be killed off so soon?
05:55Well, this actually happens so often there's even a name for it — fridging.
05:59The phrase, coined by comics writer Gale Simone, comes, ironically, from a Green Lantern storyline,
06:05in which Kyle Rayner comes home to find his girlfriend murdered and stuffed in the refrigerator.
06:09More generally, the term refers to the killing off of a female character close to the male
06:13hero in order to motivate his journey of revenge and or build his character.
06:18Deadpool subverts this trope to a small degree in his most immediate response, which is to
06:22repeatedly attempt suicide.
06:23Unfortunately for him, he's almost impossible to kill.
06:26However, a vision of Vanessa in the afterlife encourages him to try to do good rather than
06:31wallowing in despair and hate.
06:32So can he get past the anti and become a straight-up hero?
06:37Now sincerely hoping to join the X-Men, Wade dons a trainee jersey and once again teams
06:42up with Colossus and Negasonic to thwart a mutant calling himself Firefist.
06:46This kid seems to have gone crazy at a mutant re-education center, and Deadpool quickly
06:50susses that he is being abused.
06:52Killing the abuser instead of subduing the kid, Wade gets sent to mutant prison along
06:56with Firefist.
06:57With his mutant powers suppressed, Wade's superimmunity disappears, allowing his cancer
07:01to gain a foothold once more.
07:03Then the story goes full-blown Terminator, as the mutant Cable shows up from the future,
07:07determined to kill Firefist before he grows up and kills Cable's family.
07:11"- Please, God!"
07:13This would imply that days of future pasts time travel rules are initially in place here,
07:17such that if Cable changes the past, elements of his future present will never have happened.
07:22Cable's intrusion allows Deadpool to escape the prison, but Firefist still evades both
07:26their clutches after transferring to a new facility.
07:29In the comics, X-Force was a team created by Rob Liefeld out of the New Mutants, introducing
07:34the world to the likes of Cable and Domino.
07:36The trailers for Deadpool 2 promised that Deadpool would assemble X-Force onscreen,
07:40with the lineup featuring Domino, Shatterstar, Zeitgeist, Bedlam, Banisher, and lesser-known
07:45hero Peter.
07:46Much of the footage of them fighting in said trailers turned out to be a fake-out, however.
07:50With the exception of Domino, the whole team dies horribly, almost immediately.
07:54"- Oh, God.
07:55I'm gonna throw up in my mask."
07:58This leaves just Domino and Deadpool to break Firefist out of his prison transportation
08:01vehicle before Cable can get there first.
08:04Meanwhile, Firefist befriends and frees the massive Juggernaut in his quest for revenge
08:08against his abusers.
08:09Looking very different from the Vinnie Jones version of Juggernaut from X-Men The Last
08:13Stand, this Hulk-sized CG creation either suggests we're in a whole new universe or
08:17proves that Wolverine seriously changed the timeline in bizarre ways.
08:22Before long, Cable agrees to work with Deadpool to potentially seek a peaceful solution before
08:26preemptively killing Firefist.
08:28Bringing in former and new allies, Deadpool effectively assembles a new de facto X-Force
08:33with Cable, Domino, and Dopinder.
08:35When Wade sacrifices himself to save the young mutant by taking Cable's bullet instead, Firefist
08:40has a change of heart, as does Cable, who uses up the last of his time travel fuel to
08:44go back a few minutes and save Wade, too.
08:46Under the movie's time travel rules, Cable's future garb changes to reflect a changed timeline
08:51in which his family has been saved, and Wade lives.
08:53Notably, Wade's costume has also become so dirty that it resembles his gray X-Force suit
08:58from the comics.
08:59Cable also says he's willing to stay in the past for a little while, now that his family's
09:02safety is ensured, and Firefist becomes an ally, too.
09:05A proposed X-Force movie probably would have featured this version of the team, perhaps
09:10with additional characters from the comics joining in.
09:12When Disney bought Fox, however, the need to milk this smaller chunk of the Marvel universe
09:16became less essential, and an X-Force movie took a backseat to the demands of the greater
09:20Avengers saga.
09:22In the post-credits scenes in Deadpool 2, Wade commandeers the time travel device after
09:26Negasonic and her girlfriend Yukio find a way to refuel it.
09:30Not only does Wade go back in time to kill the version of himself from X-Men Origins,
09:34Wolverine, but he also murders actor Ryan Reynolds before he can accept the role of
09:38Green Lantern.
09:39You're welcome, Canada.
09:41Around this time, Wade also makes a few other key decisions.
09:44He saves Vanessa, for one thing, and also rescues Peter in the extended cut of the movie.
09:48He briefly contemplates killing an infant Adolf Hitler, too, but finds that he's unable
09:53to bring himself to murder a small baby.
09:55Then again, there may be another reason for this.
09:57If killing Ryan Reynolds hasn't stopped the Deadpool movies from existing, there's no
10:00guarantee the death of baby Hitler will stop World War II, either.
10:04This is because, for some reason or another, Deadpool 2 seems to now be following Avengers'
10:08Endgame-style time travel rules.
10:11Deadpool's next appearance in live action is a little bizarre.
10:14In the Christmas movie Once Upon a Deadpool, Wade kidnaps an adult Fred Savage, ties him
10:19up in a replica of the bedroom from The Princess Bride, and reads him the story of Deadpool
10:222.
10:23This apparently lasts for three days.
10:25This movie mostly consisted of Deadpool 2 footage bookended by scenes with Wade and
10:29Fred.
10:30Its sole purpose was to deliver a PG-13 edit of the sequel that could be seen by younger
10:34teenagers and audiences in more censorious countries, such as China.
10:38Still, it had enough new jokes to convince some fans to sit through the parts they'd
10:42already seen.
10:43It also played quite well in China, where it was renamed Deadpool 2 I Love My Family
10:47and opened to $8.5 million.
10:49In the U.K., however, the toned-down cut earned exactly the same 15 and over rating as the
10:53original version, rendering it mostly pointless from a box office standpoint.
10:57That said, a percentage of the profits at least went to fighting cancer.
11:01If you really want to, you could speculate that the kidnapping of Fred Savage suggests
11:05Deadpool now exists in a version of our own timeline, especially since they both discuss
11:09Brad Pitt, who played Vanisher in Deadpool 2.
11:12But that would probably be overthinking it.
11:14Here's what we know about the X-Men so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
11:18Earth-838, as seen in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, boasts a more eco-friendly
11:22New York City, as well as pizza served in spheres.
11:25But it also had a Professor X who looks exactly like Patrick Stewart, complete with a yellow
11:29wheelchair like the one from the animated universe.
11:32However, he is also dead now, killed by Wanda Maximoff of Earth-616, along with the rest
11:37of that universe's so-called Illuminati.
11:39Speaking of Wanda, she's canonically supposed to be Magneto's daughter.
11:43That parentage couldn't be mentioned previously for legal reasons, but we don't really know
11:47where it stands now that Disney has the right to use Magneto's character.
11:51An alternate Pietro Maximoff certainly existed in the X-Men movies, and while he briefly
11:55seemed to have crossed into the main MCU, it turned out that this was merely an actor
11:59named Ralph who was brainwashed by the witch Agatha Harkness to mess with Wanda's head.
12:03Elsewhere on Earth-616, Namor and Kamala Khan have been confirmed as the MCU's first proper
12:08mutants.
12:10When universe is ruptured in the Marvels as a result of Kree leader Dar Ben using the
12:15quantum bands, a rift opened up into a parallel reality in which X-Men pals Beast and Professor
12:20X still exist.
12:21These characters encounter Monica Rambeau in one of that movie's post-credits scenes.
12:26Beast looks a bit different than we've seen before, but we can safely chalk that up to
12:29visual effects.
12:30Still, we're left wondering, are these the Fox X-Men or new variants, and what does that
12:34mean for Wade Wilson?
12:36Considering what we've seen with variants thus far, there's a strong likelihood that
12:40the Wolverine Wade encounters in Deadpool and Wolverine will not be the same one whose
12:43story we followed in the X-Men films.
12:46It's worth noting that the original Fox version of Wolverine died pretty definitively in Logan,
12:50though that movie was set clearly in the future relative to every other X-Men and MCU movie
12:54thus far.
12:55Deadpool could conceivably encounter the Logan of Logan prior to his death, but you'd think
12:59the future scene in that movie would be considerably less grim if the heroes in it knew about the
13:04multiverse.
13:05Since this Wolverine has a comics-accurate yellow suit, the more likely notion is that
13:09he comes from the same universe as the one in which Monica Rambeau is now trapped.
13:13And the trailers for Deadpool and Wolverine have given us one last curious clue about
13:17Wolverine's status in the multiverse.
13:20In a brief shot from the Deadpool and Wolverine teaser, we glimpse what appears to be Wolverine
13:24in a white suit at a gambling table.
13:26If that's indeed the case, this is most likely a scene from the character's time under the
13:30identity of Patch, a storyline in the comics that hasn't yet been presented in movie continuity.
13:35Following a period after the X-Men were believed dead and or relocated to Australia, Wolverine
13:40resurfaced on the fictional island of Madripoor, where he utilized the clever disguise of a
13:44white suit and eyepatch, although, for some reason, he never considered restyling that
13:48incredibly distinctive haircut.
13:50Try to forget that, though.
13:51Going by the name of Patch, Logan ran missions out of a bar while operating in the midst
13:55of the world's criminal elite.
13:57Madripoor has actually been seen in the MCU.
13:59It appeared as the power broker's base of operations in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
14:03If we have to do something about this, I'm the only one who looks like a pimp.
14:07The show didn't give any indication of mutants operating there, even though that's what the
14:11location is primarily known for in the comics.
14:13If a version of Wolverine already exists in the MCU's sacred timeline, however, it's entirely
14:18possible he's been secretly operating as Patch on Madripoor this whole time.
14:23Of course, it's also important to recognize that some fans don't think that looks like
14:26Hugh Jackman at all, possibly indicating that Deadpool and Wolverine will feature a
14:30Wolverine variant played by a different actor.
14:32And anything is certainly possible in the chaos of the multiverse.
14:36The first trailer for Deadpool and Wolverine begins with a toupee-wearing Wade celebrating
14:40a birthday with a group of friends that somehow includes the very deceased Shatterstar, who
14:45was last seen being liquefied by helicopter blades.
14:48They're interrupted by agents of the Time Variance Authority, the interdimensional regulatory
14:52agency that drafted Loki into their ranks, for two seasons of Loki.
14:56Right up until the whole tree thing happened, the TVA appears to tacitly acknowledge Deadpool's
15:01unique ability to understand events that occur outside of his own timeline, and they initially
15:05seem to make him an offer to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
15:08Despite this, the place in which he ends up seems to be mostly populated by heroes and
15:12villains such as Wolverine, Pyro, and Azazel.
15:15Some of these characters are wearing much more colorful costumes than their previous
15:18appearances, and a giant 20th Century Fox logo can be seen in the rubble.
15:23Which universe is this?
15:24Though it contains elements we've seen elsewhere, they appear in altogether unfamiliar configurations.
15:29Could this be the void from Loki, where pruned variants go?
15:32Having 20th Century Fox be pruned from reality is exactly the kind of snarky joke we'd expect
15:37from the Deadpool franchise, but it seems we might have to wait a little longer to find
15:41out for sure.